This game is a few days old, so I'll spare you the detailed analysis and leave you with the numbers. There isn't too much to say about this one, though. Carolina caught Washington goaltender Braden Holtby on an off-night, burned him for three quick goals in the third period and then coasted for the rest of the game. It wasn't an overly impressive game from a possession or scoring chances standpoint, but good enough to beat another weak even strength team like Washington and give the Canes a much needed confidence boost. That said, there were a couple of standout performances, the biggest coming from the new first line of Tuomo Ruutu, Eric Staal & Jeff Skinner. A look at their numbers & more is coming after the jump.

Carolina ended up on the wrong end of the possession battle but in a 4-1 game, that doesn't mean a whole lot. The odd thing is that Washington had the edge early in the second period but all of that ended after Jeff Skinner beat Holtby with a bullet from the left faceoff circle to make it 2-0. Carolina would then add on two quick goals and salt away the rest of the game. At this point, I'm sure the Hurricanes will take this type of win over outplaying the opponent because goals have been so hard to come by this year.

Scoring Chances

Period

Total

5v5

PP

5v3

SH

3v5

4v4

EN

1

4

6

2

5

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

9

2

6

1

1

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

3

4

6

1

1

3

4

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

Totals

17

14

9

7

6

6

0

0

1

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

This was a special teams battle for the most part and it ended up being a draw with each team scoring once on the power play. Carolina had the edge in even strength chances despite losing the possession battle. Their defense did a great job of holding Washington to a lot of low-percentage shots from the outside and cleaning up most of the rebounds surrendered by Justin Peters.

Hurricanes Individual Scoring Chances

Player

Goals

Shots

Chances

Attempts

Jeff Skinner

2

7

5

8

Nathan Gerbe

0

3

3

4

Tuomo Ruutu

0

5

2

7

Jiri Tlusty

1

2

2

2

Riley Nash

0

2

2

4

Andrej Sekera

1

3

1

4

Eric Staal

0

3

1

4

Justin Faulk

0

4

1

5

Mike Komisarek

0

1

0

1

Jordan Staal

0

0

0

1

Elias Lindholm

0

0

0

1

Radek Dvorak

0

0

0

1

Drayson Bowman

0

1

0

1

Manny Malhotra

0

0

0

0

Patrick Dwyer

0

0

0

0

Jay Harrison

1

0

0

4

Ron Hainsey

0

1

0

1

Brett Bellemore

0

0

0

1

Hurricanes On-Ice Scoring Chances

#

Player

5v5

PP

SH

4v4

4

Andrej Sekera

15:03

4

4

4:41

5

0

4:37

1

3

0

0

5

Mike Komisarek

14:42

5

2

0:04

0

0

0:57

0

0

0

0

11

Jordan Staal

13:49

1

1

1:11

0

1

3:21

0

3

0

0

12

Eric Staal

12:20

1

4

4:38

6

0

2:07

1

2

1

0

14

Nathan Gerbe

9:19

3

0

0:56

0

0

1:34

1

0

0

0

15

Tuomo Ruutu

13:48

1

4

4:38

6

1

0:04

0

0

0

0

16

Elias Lindholm

8:30

5

0

0:00

0

0

0:00

0

0

0

0

18

Radek Dvorak

10:06

2

2

0:24

0

0

1:25

0

1

0

0

19

Jiri Tlusty

12:20

3

1

1:09

0

1

0:31

0

0

0

0

20

Riley Nash

9:27

5

1

0:00

0

0

0:00

0

0

0

0

21

Drayson Bowman

10:51

1

2

0:24

0

0

0:00

0

0

0

0

22

Manny Malhotra

10:40

2

1

0:29

0

0

2:37

0

3

0

0

27

Justin Faulk

17:59

3

3

4:30

6

0

4:14

1

3

0

0

39

Patrick Dwyer

12:35

1

1

0:11

0

0

3:59

0

3

0

0

44

Jay Harrison

16:06

3

3

1:43

0

1

0:49

0

2

1

0

53

Jeff Skinner

12:56

2

4

4:35

6

0

0:00

0

0

1

0

65

Ron Hainsey

18:01

3

1

1:32

1

1

3:35

0

3

1

0

73

Brett Bellemore

10:05

1

1

0:00

0

0

1:26

0

1

0

0

35

Justin Peters

9

7

6

1

1

6

1

0

Best EV Forward: Elias Lindholm +5

Worst EV Forwards: Tuomo Ruutu & Eric Staal -3

Best EV Defenseman: Mike Komisarek +3

Worst EV Defensemen: Justin Faulk & Andrej Sekera EVEN

The first line was actually pretty quiet at even strength in terms of chance production, despite Skinner's two goals. This trio did most of their damage on the power play, creating six scoring chances there. Some might write that off because they only found the back of the net once, but they did a lot of good work there and were at least doing something positive with the man advantage instead of letting it go to waste.

Capitals Individual Scoring Chances

Player

Goals

Shots

Chances

Attempts

Mike Green

1

4

4

6

Joel Ward

0

1

3

2

Jason Chimera

0

3

2

3

John Carlson

0

5

2

8

Alex Ovechkin

0

4

1

7

Eric Fehr

0

1

1

5

Nicklas Backstrom

0

1

1

5

Troy Brouwer

0

1

1

2

Tom Wilson

0

1

1

1

Marcus Johansson

0

1

1

2

Martin Erat

0

0

0

1

Tyson Strachan

0

1

0

4

Aaron Volpatti

0

0

0

2

Karl Alzner

0

1

0

1

Dmitry Orlov

0

0

0

0

Jay Beagle

0

2

0

3

Mikhail Grabovski

0

0

0

1

Nate Schmidt

0

1

0

2

Capitals On-Ice Scoring Chances

#

Player

5v5

PP

SH

4v4

8

Alex Ovechkin

11:46

3

1

7:17

5

1

0:00

0

0

0

0

10

Martin Erat

9:49

1

4

1:00

0

1

1:51

0

2

0

0

16

Eric Fehr

15:35

1

0

0:00

0

0

2:06

1

1

0

1

19

Nicklas Backstrom

11:18

3

2

5:34

4

0

0:54

1

0

0

0

20

Troy Brouwer

11:10

1

1

5:49

6

0

0:59

0

2

0

0

23

Tyson Strachan

15:54

2

4

0:00

0

0

0:42

1

0

0

0

24

Aaron Volpatti

9:55

1

5

0:00

0

0

0:00

0

0

0

0

25

Jason Chimera

10:15

1

3

0:31

2

0

2:17

0

1

0

0

27

Karl Alzner

13:39

2

3

0:06

0

0

5:20

0

6

0

1

42

Joel Ward

9:33

1

3

2:00

0

1

2:22

0

2

0

0

43

Tom Wilson

10:44

1

5

0:00

0

0

0:00

0

0

0

0

52

Mike Green

16:32

3

4

3:46

4

1

0:20

0

0

0

1

74

John Carlson

13:34

1

2

4:13

2

0

5:11

0

6

0

0

81

Dmitry Orlov

15:44

2

3

0:00

0

0

0:25

0

0

0

0

83

Jay Beagle

11:13

1

1

0:00

0

0

1:54

0

2

0

1

84

Mikhail Grabovski

13:49

1

2

2:48

0

1

0:00

0

0

0

0

88

Nate Schmidt

16:23

2

4

0:16

1

0

0:28

1

0

0

0

90

Marcus Johansson

11:46

3

2

5:45

6

0

0:03

0

0

0

0

70

Braden Holtby

6

8

2

1

0

3

0

1

31

Phillip Grubauer

1

1

4

0

1

3

0

0

Best EV Forward: Alex Ovechkin +2

Worst EV Forwards: Tom Wilson & Aaron Volpatti -4

Best EV Defensemen: Karl Alzner, Dmitry Orlov & Mike Green -1

Worst EV Defensemen: Nate Schmidt & Tyson Strachan -2

These are some interesting results because I thought the Canes held OVechkin's line in check. In many ways they did just that, holding Washington's leading goal-scorer to only once chance and his line had only tested Peters three times on the night. Still, they ended up in the black despite having a bad night by their standards.

Head-to-Head at Five-on-Five

This was a low-key game at even strength and most of the Hurricanes big matchup wins came against Washington's fourth line. The first line losing their head-to-head match-up was negated by Holtby's terrible performance, though.

5v5 Zone Entries

Hurricanes

# of entries

Shots generated

Carry-ins

Shots generated

Dump-ins

Shots generated

Sekera

1

1

1

1

0

0

Komisarek

1

0

0

0

1

0

J. Staal

4

0

3

0

1

0

E. Staal

5

4

5

4

0

0

Gerbe

2

0

0

0

2

0

Ruutu

10

5

7

4

3

1

Lindholm

1

1

1

1

0

0

Dvorak

4

0

2

0

2

0

Tlusty

5

3

3

2

2

1

Nash

1

1

1

1

0

0

Bowman

6

5

3

3

3

2

Malhotra

1

0

1

0

0

0

Faulk

3

2

1

1

2

1

Dwyer

2

0

0

0

2

0

Harrison

3

0

0

0

3

0

Skinner

2

2

2

2

0

0

Hainsey

1

0

0

0

1

0

Bellemore

3

1

0

0

3

1

Team

55

25

30

19

25

6

It's a little odd that the Canes first didn't have a big game in terms of scoring chances because they dominated Washington in the neutral zone, carrying the puck in 14 times and having 17 entries overall. Ruutu did most of the bull-work here, as he was able to gain the line with control numerous times and the Canes made most of them count. Eric Staal also had a terrific game in this regard. The only thing that I would have liked to see more of is the defensemen jumping into the play, but with Ryan Murphy scratched & the game being over by the third period, the Canes were able to get by without that. The bottom-six contributing also helped negate that.

Capitals

Player

# of entries

Shots generated

Carry-ins

Shots generated

Dump-ins

Shots generated

Ovechkin

4

5

3

3

1

2

Erat

5

2

1

1

4

1

Fehr

10

2

7

2

3

0

Backstrom

2

0

2

0

0

0

Brouwer

1

0

0

0

1

0

Strachan

3

0

1

0

2

0

Volpatti

3

1

0

0

3

1

Chimera

7

3

2

3

5

0

Alzner

3

3

0

0

3

3

Ward

1

0

1

0

0

0

Wilson

1

0

0

0

1

0

Green

2

1

0

0

2

1

Carlson

0

0

0

0

0

0

Orlov

2

0

0

0

2

0

Beagle

3

2

2

2

1

0

Grabovski

4

2

4

2

0

0

Schmidt

2

0

0

0

2

0

Johansson

3

4

2

3

1

1

Team

56

25

25

16

31

9

Washington has enough forwards & mobile defensemen to be a team that thrives on transition and carry the puck in on a regular basis but they had to play a lot of dump-and-chase in this game. Most of that stems from their defense corps dumping the puck in every chance they got but it didn't help that three forwards accounted for nearly half of their controlled entries. Not really a balanced attack.